


500

by graspthesanity



Category: The Dead Weather, The Kills, The White Stripes
Genre: AU, Being a medium shenanigans, Fortune Telling, M/M, Selkie AU, Selkie Jack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-14 10:53:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8010868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graspthesanity/pseuds/graspthesanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At an abandoned house a medium encounters a selkie, an angel and the devil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The moonlight is dim enough to light the traces of cocaine in the sky which give light shivers of relapsed memories. Biking doesn’t seem the fondest idea either to get there with the backpack filled with stuff and key promised dug under the cage with the chickens. The doors to the other bikes are open, cats are scattered. chickens hidden from under the rain in their barns which my hair and clothing state otherwise.

When I arrive it’s raining heavily and I know it will be empty for the next month and all I think about is a shower as soon as I dig the key out, the mud being far too much like child clay and I can’t help but wonder if anything will ever touch these woods if things get far worse and where even is the human limit after all?

The root of the anxiety is sole, once pulled out, would that be the sole root and how many more harvest shall rot in the future and the fear tag the worst harvest lay ahead is what drives my bones cold. Everything is cold and there are far too many toilets, the washing machine still running and I just yank the plug off, as it spins with nothing inside, maybe to remind the cats of ghosts as they quickly exit the building, maybe I trail things behind me.

I creek up the stairs to find the leaflets and just go under the covers, feeling my hair far too long, the death upon myself on my fingers but when I wake the next day I just know that the bed was too soft and gave me an illusion of some living. 

I think that if I close my eyes deep enough and dark, I will see the door to suicide but instead I head into the room, where teachers once lived in the school below, but I don’t peek in anywhere as I head up to still see some food in the fridge and I heat up the kettle to see nothing besides rain and fog above the rain. 

I make sure to lock the door and I hear people and it’s obvious I’m not the only oblivious one and I open the fridge to see leftover food and I just make an omelette, not caring and sitting on the floor, feeling it’s cold and wishing I could feel the rain without getting wet or a cold, but life tends to give both ways. But as I chew, I think of the people and I wonder and the sole thought that it might be something else, just lets me throw it as the leftovers out as I just try not to think of it. 

There is a point in loneliness when you reach the ceiling and I feel like I’ve reached it, there’s a desire to tell love to those who you’ve never managed to or to those who just haven’t allowed themselves to escape my thoughts and because too much poison had been stirred there is no point of showing up on anyone’s doorstep and saying that there was a point where I felt that I had gotten your love and then we both broke it off. There is simply no point because if the love had no catch to it, then it wouldn’t be a fucking mousetrap and then we would’ve been a couple.

So there is no point.

And maybe that’s why it’s daft to leave but when you live nowhere, it’s even easier to escape and neither had anything happened and that’s why I feel like I’m the reason Maltesers will start appearing in stores. 

They say you can feel someone else’s life upon their lips. I haven’t had so many first kisses in such a long while, that I just ended up opening all doors in the apartment, before realizing that it had dunked into early hours of the morning and bed seemed more like a pill than a solution, but was still chosen. It was far too cold after I had done the bed and curled up, thinking that it was promised to be warmer tomorrow.  
Life vanishes after you wake for a long while, even after coffee is drank and no effect is seen on the body and soon enough the sun warms up all the rooms and the attic still gives an eerie feel from the kitchen, but it’s not as if we are ever alone, we all just co-exist and I open the window to look out into the forest, teeth brushed and anxiety starts going around as I even wonder if wandering off into the forest is a good idea with the fact that regardless of where you are the taste is felt upon the tongue even if the only people who speak of war are just headlines in newspapers and people just flee or fight blindly, the country becomes a utopia just like any other country watching. I take my backpack for no actual reason, just to have the jacket on me in an easier way with a bottle of water and a knife, for sole protection and pure anxiety. Maybe get some mushrooms, I’ll see. 

War seems to have lost point in two non-held ideologies and the fall of civilization and hidden cards are in all decks, in the end there’s just those who chose sides idly and those who actually choose which side to actually give their bodies to and it even feels sinful not to participate, but then one’s life takes above because one side is held above the other and the other is just in mental support. 

I walk out to see the chickens emerge from their cage, watching me as I slowly start going away from the vegetables which are no longer harvested, wrapping the scarf tighter and it feels far too chilly and even worse when it comes to the water, I see the cat enter it’s way back into the huge house and I wonder what could I have brought along and I even wonder who even feeds the cat or rather if there is even enough mice in the house. 

I didn’t even notice the bowl but with war going on that even the headlines don’t hide and sometimes I wonder if the sky would go red sometimes, but it’s just the lights of the cities far away which are overcrowded with people actually forgetting the headlines, everything wrapped like a cocoon and pacts made to stay outside and watch, stupidity of those on the front of wrong sides just become flesh and numbers just pile up higher and higher.

I look at the water, looking how some remains still and I wonder if anyone even bikes and falls into the river and how much would the damage be. I keep watching the water until I see some long trail of black skin and I shudder, wondering if it should even be left there, I’m the only one here and I just cross to the end of the bridge, leaves falling stronger with each day as I come closer to the skin to see it shimmer and 

It’s not even the sea. Is there even access to the sea here as I pick up the skin? 

Shit.

Fuck.

I feel it’s weight and it’s odd texture how it’s not wet at all and I wonder where it’s owner even is and I should be the one to hide it and I just grab it entirely with both hands. It’s a bad superstition to head back if I had headed out.

Fuck. I start hearing footsteps and soon enough they fade out, but I kept hearing everything as I was biking here, nothing is going to be calm even if in the front of the head we’re all calm in our little bubble, eyes are still opened and headlines are read, newspapers bought eagerly and read right away even before groceries are packed. I stick the skin hastily into my backpack and I just feel the wind increase.

Why would a selkie even be in a river?  
Fuck.

Where even are they? I start searching my pockets for the cigarette pack as I just try to calmly smoke but I end up chain smoking all three which I had taken with me and still no sign and I figure out that perhaps someone just ended up being the one the selkie was interested and it’s not just people who flee off. 

I start walking up as the last cigarette is nearly done and I nearly run into a fence as I see it up as I keep going up the hill, the selkie skin still feeling awfully heavy as I can’t help but notice the bigger red house and I wonder if the cat ran away from it and I keep walking until I see two figures and that’s when I stop, looking down before I blink a few times. Fuck. 

I take a step back, but I can still observe and I look around to see and I hide behind a tree and I wish I had at least left one cigarette instead I start biting my lip as I observe the two younger men who clearly decided to fuck in their backyard and I wonder if I should leave but the trail would be loud and I would just freak them out and I’ve got the selkie skin and I wonder if any of them even is the selkie and thinking of it, that has to be some very interested in fucking a human selkie. I peek again to see one man riding the other and I just try to take a step back and suddenly I hear all of the noises under my feet and they seem louder than from the two men and I swear in my head. I have no idea how long would they fuck and I live right across the bridge. 

Well, someone unlike me has a healthy sex life, I hope I can’t help but end up watching them, as if it were some porno I just found somewhere stashed and hidden, I watch the riding one pull the other up and the moans getting louder, apparently I arrived far too late and I look up to see the clouds go chaotically nearly in circles. When I look back, there’s still fucking doing it and I feel far too turned on. Well, they gave me enough images for a fucking week and I just keep watching, clutching now a tree branch which was grown far too low, as they just keep fucking each other. 

I sigh and look down and I hear their final screams, I should really jerk off when I get back, I’d been on the road far too long and finding out places where I could stay and just settle at least for quite a while and forget too many things and try to keep the illusion of war real. 

I smirk and roll my eyes as the other non-riding male licks off the stomach of his lover until it’s clean and I wonder how much had they watched their diet and I just slowly start climbing back down and I wonder if they are the only ones in the house and if any of them are the selkie as I still have vivid images of their matching haircuts, sweat going down all their bodies and lips bruised from lips and nail traces on each other and their moans seem to be muting the sound of the river as I get back down. 

“Why were you watching?” And I quickly look back, grabbing the hand on my shoulder and my body starts shaking as I look at the piercing dark eyes and I watch his plain t-shirt and I wonder how come he’s not cold and I feel his rough fingers and he raises an eyebrow as I give myself no etiquette as I trace between his fingers to feel the webs. And here is the selkie. “They were school boys, I think. Of age, but...”

I drop his hand and I just make my way to the bridge. 

“So... are you giving my skin back?” I nearly take off my backpack to give him his skin back and then I just watch him, as he seems too be far too pale and his pitch black hair nearly as icy as his own eyes as he seems to be barefoot and the pants have an odd brown pattern and I just watch him. It’s obvious where it’s hidden, but he’s better company than the school boys, I presume. I just shrug, as if I had never seen his skin. 

“Did you see it?” I shake my head again. He just nods and heads up towards the school boy house and I wonder if I should solely bike into town for more food and I have no idea what I even intend of doing with the skin, I could sell it and see the selkie go after it unless of course they want to remain on land, which is something -

“Why are you in a river?” I yell back at him and he turns around and we’re screaming over the river and I wonder how come there are no cats by my side but maybe there is something in the house. I don’t know even how many prayers I even have to say anymore, I just feel like everyone just sticks together and everyone knows how much blood will be shed, but no one still speaks of it, just watches and the forests know far more how many bones will be crushed and cities destroyed to dusk. 

“It has access to sea.” He says, but I still hear him and I wonder as I watch him head towards the house as I just get back to the chicken barn and open doors until I recall where my bike was left and I just take it onto the road, feeling awful for taking the skin, but if to keep him on land, I have to keep it and hidden from his side. 

Maybe he’d want to go into town?

I get the bike with me as I go back to the river, but I don’t see him right away until I walk down the river to see him looking at the water.

“Do you want to go into town?” I ask him.

“Where’s that?” I just motion to the side where the town roughly is and he just shrugs. He seems awfully uninterested as he watches everything as he follows me and I get a bike for him and he just keeps glancing at the river, keeping his silence. I help him get on the bike and I hold him for a while until he’s ready and he still falls off nearly instantly and I have to hold him again and he gets off the bike.

“I should really find my skin. I’m really not interested.” I scratch my head, my anxiety thumbling with my own senses as I just keep shrugging, the skin just gaining weight like a lie, as if it were gathering water and it’s own anger fueling it’s weight gain. He then looks at me again, trying to find some truth in my clouded eyes and I just look away. “I’m Jack.”

“That’s a fucking odd selkie name. I’m Jamie.” I give him my hand and he shakes it as I feel the webs and the rough skin and he just squeezes harder and I wonder how soft does my skin feel to him or if he even feels it at all. He just glares at my name comment and nods at the introduction. We’re both foreign and it feels like everyone else is and we walk a while on the road through the woods, just watching the cars go in all ways and I would always wonder why would people go and where would they because the town would never hold the amount of cars seen on the road, so where do they all go? Where do all the statistics fit? I glance at Jack again as he motions for me to help him get on the bike again and I make sure that I walk a fair amount as he slowly gets the hang of it. He nags about the skin, but I ignore him and I wonder how much obvious it is that it’s inside my backpack and I wonder how come he doesn’t open it even when I give it to him for a brief while, like a trust test as I check the surroundings as the cars pass in two rows on each side.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s far too early and city feels far too calm with barely anyone and I wonder how long will it even be for me to even decide that I have learnt all their faces and we walk into a store as the selkie just follows me idly and I realize that he’s still barefoot, but we already cause ruckus by being new rather than being barefoot as some people slightly raise their eyes and I wonder why are there even products which could be slightly aimed towards us and I just grab bare essentials for no good reason, even if I had done it, as Jack seems to ponder on the alcohol section. 

He grabs some beers and I just raise my eyebrow at him, of course I have to pay. We pay and leave the store with the young shop assistants and there’s nothing really in town to do, it’s as if I should be biking already and we do two circles around to see where the hospital is and Jack just glances at the huge pond. 

Where even is the sea? I look around just to see houses with weird statues and then Jack points at the house which has a hairdresser sign.

“I need a haircut.” He mutters, pulling a long strand of hair. His hair isn’t that long and it looks like it just needs a brush and he just glares at my disapproving look. “If you’re not fucking giving my skin back, at least groom me.”

I just follow him into the small barbers, as I hear his smirk and I wonder how will he even get a haircut while barefoot and I look at the scattered press which all has the same, regardless of what’s supposed to be inside a few months ago, all is about war and frankly we seemed to be under the illusion that we are alright, but we won’t be at least for a very long while. We both call out until a man exits the room behind the counter and he falls far too light. His brown eyes fall on mine and I quickly look away.

He’s far too light.

“What can I do for you?” He asks both of us, his hands leaning against the counter and I watch his bright t-shirt and scissors and a brush sticking out of everything, including the black apron. 

“Where’s the sea here?” The barber smirks and Jack just rolls his eyes, pointing at his hair and the barber approaches the selkie, as the barber thinks for a while, maybe he sees it as a pick up line as he winks at me and motions for Jack to sit in the chair and he does, putting his feet on the wall and the barber just makes a weird noise, as he listens to what says about his hair. 

I watch the barber as he cuts the selkie’s hair and I close my eyes, sighing as I quickly let myself dissolve, just to feel and the barber only feels lighter, far lighter, he seems far too soft and I quickly start noticing how hard the presence around is and I feel something peek over my shoulder, I turn my head backwards-

“You alright?” I quickly close it and open my eyes. I hastily nod as Jack just narrows his eyes at me and I look back at the barber, who holds his gaze on me and then back to the selkie’s hair. He pushes his lips together, starting off the back of Jack’s head. “What do you work as?”

“I used to work as a medium.” I say carefully, but it comes out before I can even catch it and the barber looks at me from the mirror, a bit impressed and nods, chopping a significant amount of Jack’s hair. I try to avoid Jack’s gaze as we seem to have started developing intolerance towards each other just because I’m not sure what should I even be doing with his skin. 

“Really?” The barber asks as he goes up to Jack’s fringe. I try to look at him with my eyes opened, but he still seems the same, lighter and nothing is around him, neither is anything really paying attention to him as I start seeing shapes and some take human form, some don’t. “How does that work?”

I keep my silence and the barber just turns around. How about you tell me why the fuck are you so light and why are all at peace, while I get observed? I don’t say that outloud and Jack just keeps checking himself out in the mirror, as his fringe is being cut. 

“...There’s like... a gate if you must, you just lift it up in your mind and then it’s as if your subconscious shows you what actually is there, naked to the eye. So that way I would just see the spirits of the dead people would pay me to talk with.” I say, my hand under my chin, as I would watch the two men and Nick would nod again slowly and keep watching me back. I feel a bit uncomfortable talking about it as I just cross my legs and arms, quickly muttering a fast prayer in my head. 

“Which prayer do you use?” And the barber looks back at me. I instantly stand up and look for my cigarettes as he just watches me exit the premises without speaking, I quickly light a cigarette and lift the lid, feeling the breeze and I slowly start hearing noises and conversations and a light head ache comes to greet me as I turn around. He even looks lighter, a bit even transparent. 

Fuck.

“Which prayer do I use? Why the fuck would you ask that?” I ask myself outloud, looking back. 

Prayer.

I breathe out the smoke. He should know something then. Maybe toyed with ouija boards. 

I walk in and with any song even if old memories were wired upon it, new can bond and then new thoughts and new attachments fold, as if there is something else, as if love can be given somehow else and I feel something on the back of my neck and I just head back as the barber just focuses on the door which opens and hastily closes. But the barber makes sure that I focus on him as he keeps his eye contact firm. 

“So which prayer do you use?” He’s slowly starting to finish it off and it’s weird to see Jack with such trimmed hair and I quickly glance at him, feeling something weird jerk in my stomach and my neck only feels like the wound expands and before I look back I just look again at the barber, as if he’s holding me down. 

“The basic one.” I mutter, now slowly rubbing the back of my neck. Before the pain hits me fully, the barber hastily snips and turns towards me, his eyes still focusing on whatever is behind the door. 

“Use it for your own good.” I quickly glance back, but I already start saying a prayer out loud and neither do I want to open a channel to see, so I just leave it there, but the pain remains on the back of my neck and I don’t question far too much until I reach the ending, quickly glancing back at the barber. 

Jack’s done and he just asks for a cigarette as he exits the premises and I just pay with my card, waiting for the transaction to complete. I hold my silence and I open the channel, feeling a bit too bizarre and the sting still evident in the back of my neck and I glance back at the barber. 

“It’ll pass. I hope.” He says quietly. I glance back as Jack is there alone with his new short haircut and smoking slowly. The barber chews on his bottom lip before motioning with his hand for me to turn around. I narrow my eyes instead and tha barber rolls my eyes. 

“I think we need a proper introduction then, Mr. Medium.” He holds a pause. “What do you think am I?”

I just hold my silence and shrug, opening the channel just to see him be a bit transparent and his colours a bit brighter and that’s when the barber shrugs and smirks. Now it’s my turn to just stare at him blankly and wonder and then I just shake my head. 

“No... idea whatsoever?” He tilts his head to the side, pouting a bit and then just sighing, hands on hips. “Really, no idea? You fucking said the prayer and no idea?” 

I look at him.

“...You’re in physical form, it’s blinding, if that’s what you’re asking.” I say pulling my lips with my fingers, getting anxious that I honestly have no idea, I always have no idea, I just let it be and here he is, asking me what I see and how can I even know when I’ve never seen anything as transparent. He just laughs a bit too lightly. 

“That is true, Mr. Medium.” He puts his hand on my shoulder and I focus on his bracelets, but he still seems to be hiding himself from me. “Believe in the Greater Good, Mr. Medium?”

I tug on my lip harder, watching him. I just shake my head from side to side, then I give a confused shake.

“All I know is that I’m a medium. That’s all.” I mutter. 

“Really? No hope?” The barber clicks his tongue. He looks outside. And stands on his tiptoes and smirks. “You disappoint me.”

I ignore his wink.

“Anyway, give the selkie back its skin, that’s your message, Mr. Medium, from me.” And that’s when it dawns on me. I blink a few times. He waves at me and pushes the door open behind the counter but I catch him by the wrist. He looks at me confused. “You’re fine. I’m telling you. All went away. You did the prayer, I was here. He can’t come in. We... stay neutral from each other. World is at war, yet we respect each other’s spaces, something humans can’t seem to do.”

He sighs and slowly shakes my hand off his wrist, but I grasp it again and he just looks at me confused, muttering a what and I just hold him tighter. 

“I’m the opposite, what do you want me to tell you?” He doesn’t get annoyed, but rather amused, confused and he keeps looking at me, now fiddling with his hair, which seems to be pretty well kept in place, but then he’s a barber he wakes up and can do it with both eyes closed. 

“I’m sorry... I never thought, well, it’s ridiculous of me to say, but I never thought any of you existed, which is ridiculous to say, but yeah. I’m sorry.” I stretch my hand to him and he just shakes it, smiling lightly.

“Ok, Mr. Medium, I see I’m your first ever Angel in human form. Give the selkie back it’s skin, I’m serious.” He walks up to the window and taps on the glass right where Jack is. “That... selkie is not someone you should’ve meddled with.”

He watches my scared eyes as I start pulling my bottom lip again. The barber shakes his head. 

“No, not that there’s anything wrong... just, be careful and give it back eventually, yeah?” He squeezes my shoulder and I just watch him, trying to concentrate and the angel smirks and for a small fragment the room is lit a bit and I get a glimpse of his folded feathers and he lets go of my shoulder and the room is back to usual. “I know, looks cliche, I’m not as exciting as a selkie.”

We both pause.

“Jamie.” I stretch my hand out to him as he just says Nick and shakes it back and I exit the premises with the backpack, wondering if I should’ve asked more but instead I just look at Jack, who seems to be observing everyone including the children across the road waiting for the bus to arrive and I wonder how come we all hold the illusion, but then what an illusion is to us is reality to the rest and it goes on in swirls. Jack doesn’t really pay much attention to me as we slowly start going back and I keep observing him, how he’s taller and much better built than I am and I wonder if he fucking came with those clothes, but doesn’t really look like it, I don’t think he’d be naked either. Maybe it comes in a pack, if I raid the skin properly I’ll find some shoes for him. 

“Thank you.” He says as I unchain our bikes and then I put the chain around his seat and he just sits back on his bike and I hold it down. The selkie just looks at me unamused. “It’s a joke, someone thought that’s how you do it... I just saw it, that’s all.”

I quiet down and he just rolls his eyes, but he gives out a small smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Decided to give a second life to this old fic of mine. For more and the backstory check http://graspthesanity.blogspot.com


End file.
